Undersowing Crops On Track for Optimal Results

Home 🞂 Newsroom 🞂 Undersowing Crops On Track for Optimal Results

Jim Heal runs a mixed cropping and sheep enterprise 40kms west of Three Springs, a region that receives an average annual rainfall of 430mls.

In the past, this rainfall has predominantly fallen throughout the typical winter growing season months. Still, Jim has seen the rainfall patterns start to change, with a noticeable increase in summer rainfall events. These changes have influenced Jim to begin implementing some adaptive practices to take advantage of any summer rainfall.

This year, Jim is trialling under sowing a lupin crop, with Lucerne and Izmir sub-clover and also with wheat in a slightly salty valley floor paddock. Doing so will provide a variety of potential benefits for both productivity, soil health, and sustainability.

The lucerne and clover will provide additional fodder for stock, especially during the summer/autumn feed gap.

  • Wind erosion can cause significant damage in the area, as has been very apparent in the last two years. Extreme wind events and heavy rainfall in summer and autumn cause the most damage to soils with less than 50% ground cover. An active summer crop can help mitigate these erosion risks by providing and maintaining ground cover.
  • All three crops are legumes, and Jim hopes this will help fix Nitrogen into his soils and give a growth response to future crops in this paddock. 
  • This approach can assist with weed management.
  • The summer-active lucerne will help to keep the paddocks greener for longer with living plants in the soil. This helps feed and protect the biology in the soil and increase carbon cycling through the system, improving soil health and increasing the soil’s water holding capacity. 
  • A multi-species crop helps to build biodiversity into the system, and diversity builds resilience.

All the seeds were sown together, which created a few challenges given the variety in seed size. They have germinated well, especially on the gravel sites, although sowing depth may need more adjustment or a different approach on the sandier country. The warm soils through April and May will have helped with germination, but the recent cold weather will considerably slow the summer active lucerne growth. The lupins will be harvested off the top come late October/November, and this will leave a mixed lucerne and clover crop, ready to take advantage of any summer rains.  

Jim has had some experience of growing lucerne before. In the past, he has used it to help establish perennial grasses. The fast-growing lucerne provides the slower perennial grasses with some protection.  Another advantage with the lucerne is its tolerance of certain chemicals, which provides an opportunity for clearing up weeds in the paddocks, particularly melons.

After harvesting the lupins, Jim plans to maintain this paddock for grazing for a couple of years. Jim is very interested in seeing if and how the sub-pasture affects the Lupin crop yield and is also interested in seeing how this approach affects the soil organic carbon levels in the paddock.  Jim has already been thinking about improving the process, mainly around incorporating different size seeds at their optimum planting depths. In the future, he may try spreading the clover and lucerne seed in front of the tractor before seeding the lupins over the top. We hope to check back in with Jim later in the year and see how everything is progressing.

For more information, please get in touch with our Regional Agriculture Landcare Facilitators. Annabelle (E) annabelle.garratt@nacc.com.au or (P) 0448 986 879

Lizzie (E) lizzie.king@nacc.com.au or (P) 0447 361 335.

Lizzie King – Regional Agriculture Landcare Facilitator

Share

We'd Love to Hear From You!

Your feedback is important to us. If you have suggestions, questions, or would like to get involved in Natural Resource Management, please use the form below or contact our Geraldton office. We’re here to listen and help

Contact Us

Geraldton Office

4 Walton Close, Geraldton
Post: PO Box 7168, Geraldton, 6531
Phone: (08) 9938 0100
Office hours: 8:30am to 4:30pm

Forms

Expression of Interest Form 🞂

Suggest a Project Form 🞂

Membership Form 🞂

Donations Form 🞂

Contacts

NACC Board Members 🞂

NACC Staff 🞂

NRM Bodies & Groups 🞂

CEO’s Report

In 2020-21 I talked about ‘raising the bar’. In 2021-22 we worked on setting the bar on fire. Over the last 12 months, the team at NACC NRM has not stopped.

The Sustainable Agriculture team has extended the program’s reach through collaborations with grower groups in the regions. Specifically, the Beyond Reasonable Drought project and Grower Group Alliance – South West WA Drought Innovation Hub – Geraldton Node project. The Beyond Reasonable Drought partnership with grower groups supported farmers across the region to improve the environmental sustainability of their agricultural production and drought resilience. The outcomes of this project have been consolidated through our successful Expression of Interest to the South West WA Drought Innovation Hub, with support from grower groups across the region, to host the Geraldton Node of the Hub. The program continues to focus on working with agricultural networks to share technical expertise and provide opportunities that will improve land management practices in agriculture across the region.

The conservation outcomes of ranger teams have expanded through work on several land tenures. Maintaining Heritage sites such as Willi Gulli, Racecourse Paddock and Buller River has long been a priority. During 2021-22, the teams have increasingly focused on threatened species and ecosystems.

To this end, Western Mulga rangers have improved management across 19,000 ha for the conservation of Malleefowl through firebreak and access management. They completed the maintenance of water holes and supported the monitoring of over 90 Malleefowl mounds.

Similarly, the Kwelena Mambakort Aboriginal Corporate ranger team have contributed positively to Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo populations by installing artificial hollows and habitat restoration.

All ranger teams have collected native seed, propagated native plants for restoration, and planted native vegetation in key locations across the NAR. Seed collection provides valuable industry experience and has facilitated the planting of over 100,000 seedlings during the year.   

In September 2021, the NACC NRM team delivered the WA Threatened Species Forum, held in tandem with the National Malleefowl Forum. Given the impact of COVID and the timing of this event, having more than 100 delegates from all over Australia was a significant achievement. The two Forums brought together 12 events over five days and featured 14 local artists, 25 businesses and 36 youth participants.

Following the successful relaunch of our updated NARvis, NACC NRM was invited to help lead a significant piece of strategic planning work for the region with Mid West Development Commission and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. With funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund, the consortia delivered a Regional Drought Resilience Plan covering the shires of Northampton and Chapman Valley and the City of Greater Geraldton, along with significant technical analysis of drought vulnerability for the South West land division. The development of this plan also included extensive community consultation to ensure that local knowledge and technical advice guided the development of priorities for action.

This planning work links to existing NACC NRM on-ground projects, including Beyond Reasonable Drought and the Chapman Catchment Collaborative regeneration project.

It was a busy year for events with face-to-face events becoming commonplace again. During 2021-22 we hosted events in Gingin, Moora, Dalwallinu, Cervantes, Jurien Bay, Walkaway, Nabawa, Perenjori, Kalannie and Morawa. We supported events in Karakin, Thundellara, Perenjori, Paynes Find, Wubin, Cataby, Warradarge, Northampton, Yuna, Dalwallinu and Dandaragan.

We also supported on-ground works throughout the region, including at the following locations Yuna, Dalwallinu, Dandaragan, Merkanooka, Goodlands, Kalannie, Bunjil, Yardarino, Canna, Kondut, Latham, Kadathinni, Nabawa, Red Gully, Sandy Gully, Waddy Forrest, Devils Creek, Perenjori, Bowgada, Ellendale, Wandana, Namban, Hill River, Warradarge, Gillingarra, Regans Ford and Moonyanooka.

Our region is vast – slightly larger than Tasmania, which for comparison, is serviced by three separate NRM organisations. Covering the NAR region and its many environmental threats is challenging. We continue to focus on partnerships and collaboration to address this challenge. We know that by working with our community through passionate delivery of collaborative on-ground projects and education, the community will value and actively protect our region’s natural capital.

This year we have launched a new Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). The RAP Working Group consulted widely and developed an Innovate RAP which Reconciliation Australia approved in March 2022. The activities to fulfil these commitments are now in full swing.

Sadly, at the end of 2021, we farewelled former NACC NRM CEO Shelley Spriggs, who lost a long battle with cancer. Shelley was an inaugural inductee to the NRM Leadership Honour Roll. I will always be grateful for her guidance and no-nonsense approach, not to mention her passion for life.

While we have said farewell to some, we have welcomed many new faces across all programs, including our Administration team. We have also hosted a school-based trainee from Nagle Catholic College who has been working towards a Certificate II in Conservation and Ecosystem Management. This trial position has been very successful, and we look forward to making this opportunity available again in 2023.

During 2022 we have taken on new projects that align with our organisational and program objectives, and we have successfully completed some great initiatives that support continued conservation and sustainability outcomes. I want to thank the whole team who continue to go above and beyond for the organisation and each other proving their ongoing commitment to our purpose and our values.